It's Not the Same

Sundays are by far my longest, gloomiest (is that a word?) days..

Nothing screams louder to me

that our life is strange & different

than on Sundays.

I'm realizing that it's so much

more than just not having Darren around...although that is huge!

I still feel lost, disoriented, in a lonely, head spinning kind of way on Sundays.

Since we are not "in ministry"  our weekends are different,

 Not strange, just different from what I have ever, ever known!

But..God's GRACE and LOVING KINDESS is

all over my life...all over my family! ALL OVER!

Psalm 100

On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

  Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

  For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

------------------------------------

When I was in CA this last weekend, we almost didn't

make it to church. We were up late watching a movie the night before,

we were enjoying our lazy, last morning together,

but at the last minute (literally 15 min before we had to leave)

we decided to go! I'm so glad we went!

I miss going to church with Darren...my soul needed it..we needed it!

After an awesome salvation message, sweet communion together,

they ended the service with this song..one of my faves!!!

I couldn't keep back the tears! This song, every word

describes my heart!

You are Peace when my fear is crippling,

You are true even in my wandering,

You are JOY,

You're the reason that I sing!

I'm running to You!

Vintage Faith

Santa Cruz
11/4/11

The riches of His love will ALWAYS, ALWAYS be enough!
 Running to His arms!

A few Randoms:

*I had an awesome weekend with Darren in Cali,

sweet time, lazy days, long conversations,

good food, walks on the beach and a 5 mile run!

Priceless...so hard to say good-bye, even though I will see him in 16 days!

Santa Cruz
11/4/11

He took me to the best Sushi bar ever! (and he doesn't even like sushi)

*3 day school week, end of quarter, inservice and Veteran's Day

I love my job, but days off are always nice too :)

1/4 of the year done!

* Are you doing 30 Days of Thanks this month?

It's so fun to see so many people participating on Facebook!

What a way to cultivate a heart of thanks!

I'm doing this with my 8th grade Bible class at school!

Love it!

HomeWord

*I'm going through an awesome series on Jeremiah.

It's found at OnePlace by Beth Moore.

I've never done a study just on that book...love getting up early and

starting my day with it!

*I'm digging through Rob Bell's book, Love Wins.

I know there are so many opinions out there about this book,

but a friend gave it to me and I think it's time

I read it and stop forming an opinion based on what I have heard! ha!

Sounds terrible, but I did!

Still not sure what I think, not quite done with it.

----------------------------------------------------------

If we thirst for Shalom and we long for the PEACE that

trasencds all understanding God deosn't just give,

they're poured out on us..

lavished,

heaped,

POURED,

until we are ovewhelmed!

It's like a feast where the food

and wine don't run out!!!

Rob Bell~

Weekend

Oregon Coast 7.9.11


 

"There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.) And as I lay there, it occurred to me that God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always known He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty. The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because His beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her."
— Donald Miller

Weekends~

A few weeks ago we celebrated one

of my dear BFF, ROBIN's, bday!

We hit up Portland and made our

first stop at the Melting Pot!

I love me some fondue!

We made sure to get there during happy

hour and the prices were very afordable!

I could eat this kind of food every day!

Then our super friendly and patient

waiter gave us some suggestions on

what to do the rest of the evening

We moved onto  Departure

A cool, modern Asian restaurant/lounge!

Departure~

This weekend, Haley and I went to

The Revolve Tour. I took Molly a

 few years ago and have been looking so

forward to taking for years!

I knew she would love the speakers and

especially the concerts. Hawk Nelson

was by far the FAVE of the weekend!

If you have teenage daughters or preteens

in your life, get them to this concert!!

Me, with my cute Haley!

These little teeny boppers have

been best friends since they were 2!

Such sweet friends!

BLESSED!

 

Beach/Snow/Ready for Spring!

On President's Day we headed to the beach

and enjoyed a little sun and clam chowder

bread bowls at none other than

"The Chowder Bowl" ha!

The beach was amazing, the sky was clear

and it felt good to get to the beach for the day!

It's rare to have a sunny day in Febraury at our coast :/

Three days later we had a snow day! What?

Again, rare for February around here.

It was nice to have yet another day off, unexpected.

The girls were outside playing in it quite early

but it only lasted about 20 minutes.

It's been a great Sunday at home,

working on homework and upcoming projects

and staying in pj's most of the day!

Haley made chocolate chip pancakes from

scratch for breakfast and then

fetticcuine alfredo for dinner! NICE!

Look who's coming home next week!!

Tim has spring break next week

and will be making a road trip

with 3 other guys to Oregon! YAY!

Can't wait!

Dreaming of this~

Spring break is 3 weeks away!

READY FOR SPRING/SUMMER!

Cute Kimonos ;)

DELIA

Needin me some BETHEL and Jesus Culture!

We are reeling from an emotional weekend

of saying goodbye to our church family.

Darren has described this weekend

as the "cold medicine" fog.

We are overwhelmed by so much love

from so many..soooo many!

God is so good like that..He brings the troops around

you when you most need it! This season, we have needed it!

Our home has been filled with friends, our email and text
messages filled with encouragement!

In no way do feel like we need the recognition of man,

but how nice to be LOVED!

These lyrics are so comforting to my heart!

I want to feel your embrace

feel your arms around me

feel your heart beating next to mine

It's telling me it's all gonna be okay

It's all gonna be okay

It's all gonna be okay

IT'S ALL GONNA BE OKAY!

I wanna see your face

wanna see who I can be

I wanna see who I can see

In the mirror of Your eyes

You are telling me

It's all gonna be okay!

JESUS CULTURE~ JAKE HAMILTON

Excited to be heading to Redding, CA this weekend to check
out Bethel Church and hopefully hear a little Jesus Culture!
Need a little family get away! Thank-you Jesus!

Frazzled, Frenzied and Need Another Brownie!

*Me*

a little hairied, frazzled and on the fritz!

My Week....

* 16 hours of Suicide Intervention Training

* Started a major "cleansing" diet, forever hungry

* Husband resigned his ministry job after 11 years

* Started my monthly you know what. (TMI, i know)

* Volunteered weeks ago to be an Iron Chef Brownie judge today

after a 5 day cleanse of no sugar, which is a VERY long time for me,

and I loved every minute of every chocolate goodness today!

Happy that it's the weekend!

Thankful that He gives strength to the weary!

 and about to put my pj's on for the evening and it's not even 4:00pm!

We had a nice little weekend around here. It started with a date with our 12 year-old, just the three of us. We took her out to dinner and then to redbox to get a movie. It was nice just focus on her. She talks so much, all the time, that sometimes I don't think I hear half of the things she says because I'm on overload from her words and the volume level of those words..ha! All I can say is..she is me! She makes us laugh everyday with her craziness and it was nice to hang out with her.  Saturday, Darren and I went for a run. I think I am going to take a break until my official training for the half marathon starts next week. My legs cramps are out of control and I want them to heal! Darren ran 13 miles yesterday..he ran my half marathon..crazy! We did squeeze in a late night movie Saturday night. We saw the Green Hornet. Loved it! By far the best part of the weekend was having a group of ladies spend some time praying over our family yesterday. I have so much I want to write/journal about our time together. We spent a few hours in worship and prayer, just 6-7 of us, seeking GOD! Powerful stuff happens when you cry of to Jesus, just sayin :) If you haven't listened to this song I posted Saturday, LISTEN! I have it blasting right now! COME AWAY, IT'S NEVER TOO LATE! (thankful for that: )

My power verse for this awesome Monday....getting my containers ready for Him to pour MORE into our lives!

"There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit" Romans 5:3-5 (the Message)

Come Away, Jesus Culture!

Cannot stop listening to this powerful song! The girls are at the mall and Darren went to do some work at the church for a bit, it's just me and my dog and this song..playing very loud!!  "COME AWAY WITH ME, IT'S GONNA BE WILD..." I'm ready Lord! :)  Listen!!


Jesus Culture - Come Away found on Pop
Come away with me

Come away with me
It's never too late
It's not too late  for you
I have a plan for you
It's gonna be wild it's gonna be great it's gonna be for me
Come away with me 
It's not too late for you
I have a plan for you 
It's gonna be wild it's gonna be great it's gonna be for me
Open up your hearts and let me in

In the Kitchen~

Last weekend Haley had her best friend over for a sleepover and they were set on getting in the kitchen  to do a "project"  Their teacher at school has been in the hospital so they started with making her chocolate oatmeal cookies. I just let them take over. The cookies were delish, so I had them make another batch for the family. They were on a roll at this point and they came to me with a grocery list of items they would need for dinner. Haley usually wants to make some crazy dish, with ingredients I have never heard of or she wants to make an "experiment" dinner. One time her "experiment" dinner was spagetti tacos..yuck! When I saw they had actually picked something that look fairly easy and sounded amazing..I was off to the store for them. Hey, if there's going to be a great dinner served and dessert is already made, let's make it a party. So we invited her "partner chef's" family over for dinner that evening. They were spent the entire day in my kitchen. The nacho casserole was quite tasty and I was sad their were ZERO leftovers. This is def going to be on our monthly menu from now on, (and it's Haley's job to make it, ha) Only downfall of letting your child have the kitchen for the day, I'm still finding food splatters in strange places in there. So worth it though :)

NACHOS CASSEROLE

1 cup chunky medium taco sauce
1 (4 oz.) can green chilies or jalapenos, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 green or red bell pepper or 1 poblano pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 cup black beans or refried beans
2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup beef broth
4 cup nachos
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
sour cream
green onions, minced
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray or brush a 8 x 12-inch glass baking dish with oil. Combine taco sauce and chilies in small bowl, set aside.In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, peppers, onions and garlic. Drain. Add cumin, beans, 1 cup cheese, half of taco sauce mixture and water.
Cover bottom of dish with nachos. Cover nachos with meat mixture and top with remaining taco sauce mixture. Add nachos on top. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. Garnish with tomatoes, sour cream, green onions or minced yellow onions.
Makes 6 servings. (double recipe, you will want leftovers :)

Not the actual picture, this is from SouthernFoods

But it looks very similar, except I don't

have those super cool white plates!

The two little cooks :)

SIDENOTE: If you are looking for some easy, quick, simple, creative, HEALTHY recipes, check out my friend, Carly's new blog! I've used several of her recipes already!

i love fun Christmas mugs~

Every morning I wake the girls up with a peppermint

mocha in a Christmas mug! 

They seem to get up a little quicker :)

Downfall...I went into their room

yesterday and saw 3 days worth of empty mugs..gross!

Little lazy girls!

Headed for a little getaway with my man..

to celebrate our anniversary!

yahoo!

What do you have planned this weekend?

A Summer Monday

We had a super relaxing weekend with the fam!~

It started off with a delish  dinner with one of my favorite families!

and a few other teachers from school.

A family in my class invited us all over

for an end of year party!

There was a pond, canoe,

rope swing, fire pit, and WORSHIP!

Couldn't ask for a better evening!

Saturday was a lazy morning,

a quick trip to farmer's market,

a nice run, (rain free ; )

and some dinner and hang

out time with the fam

and a few friends!

Sunday we celebrated the DAD'S in my life!

My own amazing dad and my husband, the best father ever!

Again, a lazy afternoon, which included a nap!

I NEVER can get my hubby

to take a nap with me!

It was heavenly!

Then we hung out all evening with

ALL 5 of us home! RARE!

I stayed up late, made smoothies, ate popcorn

and played "Words with Friends"

 (my new addiction: )

I've been listening to some Rosi Golan.

Not too familiar with her but I heard her

and instantly LOVED her!

She reminds me a bit of Regina Spector,

Priscella Ahn

CHECK IT!

Also, the lyrics to this song have been blasting

in my kitchen all afternoon! (while a made a yummy pot roast)

STOP THE WORLD!!

Ever feel like that? We all do!

Stop the world, need an escape,

Need to be still and hear HIS voice!

mmmmm, my heart craves precious time with Jesus!

Working on slowing down this summer and getting

that every morning!

One more thing....Loving yellow, Lemons and clear jars!

My new purchase!

Don't ya love this table!

What did you do this weekend?

MoNdAy and Other Ramblings~

Hope you all had a great weekend!

It was beautiful and sunny here in the NW.

We spent most of our time outside and it was wonderful!

Tim had his very last track meet!

Actually, his last high school sporting event EVER!

.....which was quite sad :(

But it was fun day!

My mom and my cute girls and myself..holding a few

one dollar bills, what in the world?

This one was taken with my phone and not good quality

but I love it! My camera died and this is

the only good one I got of Tim.

Afterwards, we got a little shopping in, a retirement party,

and then I headed out to a movie with some girlfriends.

We saw "Letters to Juliet"

Very cute, very predictable and a total chick flick!

Yesterday, we went to church,

then Chipotle, where we sat outside in the warm sun

and talked for hours. So nice to hang out with my kids

and not be rushed...sit and talk...that rarely happens

with teenagers!

I also got a good, long run in yesterday!

4 times in one week, I'm on a roll! ha~

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND?

Darren is at a fishing tournament this week.

 It's a long one and it's far away.

The days are long without this crazy man in my life!

Miss HIM!

focusing on these words today.....

MONDAY POWER VERSE:

He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR MY GIVEAWAY!

WINNER ANNOUNCED ON THURSDAY~

Rainy Mondays~

Oh, how I love weekends and how can it be (early) Monday morning already!? The weather was nice even though rain was predicted, (surprise, surprise) Darren and I biked all morning Saturday and then spent the day helping Tim get ready for his last high school formal. I never thought a boy would need all day to get ready but we (he) waited until the last minute for a few things...flowers, dry cleaners, wash car...etc.. those kind of guy things! He took two girls from school, they all kind of went as a group and he decided to "pimp" out the car! He was pretty creatve..rigged up some lights, had strawberries and chocolate! Cute! Kind of sad, being his last formal!~

Yesterday, all five of us went on a loooong bike ride! We sometimes have to get creative in finding things we all five like to do...this is not Molly's favorite thing but she was nice enough to grace us with her presence : )  I had to snap this picture of her. Tim's bike broke and while Darren and Tim were working on it, she pulls out her notecards to study! Love that girl! She is everything I have never been and I just adore her!!

Here a few pictures of the Tim's creation! Pretty funny!

Off to start a new week and a full Monday! Field trip with 50 fourth graders! Yippe :)

Wish I had these to wear..since it is.....RAINING!!

love em

no caps friday

(from)

boy, am i ever glad to see this week come

to an end. especially this day! ever have a day where you

are hit with one battle after another? battle may be a strong

word for this day, but it sure feels like i've been to battle.

i am fighting a chest cold, had many things on my calendar this

week and had a few mean people cross my path today.

mean people are just...just..mean!

no matter how many mean people i deal with, i am

steal amazed at how mean we can get! i

don't like whiny posts, or whiny days so i went

and bought myself some sushi for dinner!

i feel so rebellious i am not using caps!

what's on your agenda this weeked?

bike ride is on the agenda for us and nothing, nothing else!

hello saturday!

-----------------------------------

Dear God,

Help me to follow your Word and to keep my heart humble before YOU!

When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;

when you run, you will not stumble.

 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;

guard it well, for it is your life.

Proverbs 4:12-14